UK Mortgages Guide

Introduction

The vast majority of homebuyers do not have sufficient
capital to buy a property outright. In fact, most of us
are forced to borrow the lion's share of the money required
to fund a purchase, something that is made possible by the
widespread availability of mortgages in this country.

For many people, mortgages are just great. They allow
you to borrow thousands and thousands of pounds at a rate
of interest that is not a vast amount higher than inflation.
You can take twenty-five years to pay back the money, during
which time your monthly outgoings may well be lower than
if you were renting a property of a similar standard. And
if you want to sell the house at some point during the life
of the mortgage, you normally get to keep any increase in
the value of the property. It's so simple, how can it possibly
go wrong?

In reality, the answer is very easily indeed. Borrowing
the money is the easy part - as long as your demands are
within the bounds of reason, lenders will often be falling
over themselves to lend you the cash. But deciding which
type of mortgage to go for and how exactly you are going
to pay it back is much a more difficult decision, but one
which could prove to be quite costly if you get it wrong…

If you have never bought a mortgage, or have always relied
on the advice of others, trying to find your way through
the mortgage maze on your own can be a daunting task. With
so many lenders offering such a lot of different mortgages,
finding the right one is not always easy. And while you
may never know the difference, by making the wrong choice,
you could be needlessly overpaying by thousands of pounds
in interest payments, fees and other charges.

Hopefully this mortgage guide will help you to understand
exactly what you are letting yourself in for and make the
whole process just a little bit easier to comprehend. It's
not meant to be a quick and easy guide, though with a bit
of perseverance most people should be able to get to grips
with the information on these pages.

But if you do get stuck, help is at hand. At any point,
you can speak to an independent mortgage adviser by calling
0207 9999999. They won't be able to specifically discuss
this guide with you, but they will be able to talk through
your needs and help you make a decision that's right for
you.